The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for controlling or limiting the communication of odors. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for controlling human odor in articles of plain colored, camouflaged, or otherwise patterned clothing. Such clothing may be used by hunters, field biologists, nature photographers, and others to reduce the likelihood of detection by target species (e.g., deer, bear) during hunting in a natural environment, evasion in a wartime setting, or in other applications.
Humans produce, expel, or otherwise provide a spectrum of odors, some of which are detectable by wild game and other animals, and which signal the presence of humans. Carbon is widely recognized as an odor-controlling material and is used in various industries to eliminate odors, including the hunting and camouflage fields for changing a hunter's odor profile. For example, activated carbon formed from coconut shell may be integrated in some camouflage clothing.
Some camouflage clothing for hunters may use activated carbon or charcoal to adsorb (e.g., absorb, take in, mask, control) human odors to thwart animals' acute sense of smell and effectively conceal humans from animals. Adsorption of human odors using carbon has been found to reduce the odor profile of hunters. But use of carbon alone may not adsorb the full spectrum of human odor detectable by some target species. Instead, other sources of human odor may not be controlled and may still indicate the presence of the hunter to the target species.
Applicant is the inventor of the technologies disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,236, issued Jan. 24, 1995, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,236 discloses the use of odor-controlling materials, including activated charcoal, chlorophyll, baking soda, activated alumina, soda lime, zeolite, calcium oxide, and potassium permanganate. However, U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,236 teaches the use of only a single odor-controlling material. U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,236 teaches neither the combination of odor-controlling materials nor varying concentrations of a combination of odor-controlling materials in different locations to mask the full spectrum of human odor from a target species. A combination of odor-controlling materials or a combination of odor controlling materials tailored to specific body areas due to variable concentration may be more effective at adsorbing human odor.